Rover Boys In The Air

"Fo' de land sakes, Massa Dick, wot am dat contraption yo' boys dun put togedder back ob de bahn yesterday?" "Why, Aleck, don't you know what that is?" returned Dick Rover, with a smile at the colored man. "That's a biplane." "A biplane, eh?" repeated Alexander Pop, the colored helper around the Rover homestead. He scratched his woolly head thoughtfully. "Yo' don't mean to say it am lak a plane a carpenter man uses, does yo', Massa Dick? 'Pears lak to me it was moah lak some ship sails layin' down,—somethin' lak dem ships we see over in Africy, when we went into dem jungles to find yo' fadder." "No, it has nothing to do with a carpenter's[2] plane, Aleck," answered Dick, with a laugh. "A biplane is a certain kind of a flying machine." "Wat's dat? A flyin' machine? Shorely, Massa Dick, yo' ain't gwine to try to fly?" exclaimed Aleck, in horror. "That is just what I am going to do, Aleck, after I have had a few lessons. I hope to fly right over the house, just like a bird." "No! no! Don't you try dat, Massa Dick! You'll break yo' neck suah! Don't yo' try it! I—I can't allow it nohow—an' yo' aunt won't allow it neither!" And the colored man shook his head most emphatically.